Three RiversHudson~Mohawk~SchoharieHistory From America's Most Famous Valleys

The Indian In His WigwamCharacteristics of TheRed
Race of AmericaFrom Original Notes and ManuscriptsBy Henry R. SchoolcraftNew YorkDewitt & DavenportTribune Buildings1848.

This is a lengthy book and covers many of the Red Race who
are not native to New York State. Pertinent parts of the book will be posted.
abjerry Thanks to Pamela Wozniak and David Collins for loaning
this book for the purpose of using it on our website.

REVERENCE AND AFFECTION FOR PARENTS.

THERE lived a noted, chief at Michilimackinac, in days past,
called Gitshe Naygow, or the Great-Sand-Dune, a name, or rather nick-name,
which he had, probably, derived from his birth and early residence at a spot
of very imposing appearance, so called, on the southern shore of Lake Superior,
which is east of the range of the Pictured Rocks. He was a Chippewa, a warrior
and a counsellor, of that tribe, and had mingled freely in the stirring scenes
of war and border foray, which marked the closing years of French domination
in the Canadas. He lived to be very old, and became so feeble at last, that
he could not travel by land, when Spring came on and his people prepared to
move their lodges, from their sugar-camp in the forest, to the open lake shore.
They were then inland, on the waters of the Manistee river, a stream which
enters the northern shores of Lake Michigan. It was his last winter on earth;
his heart was gladdened by once more feeling the genial rays of Spring, and
he desired to go with them, to behold, for the last time, the expanded lake
and inhale its pure breezes. He must needs be conveyed by hand. This act of
piety was performed by his daughter, then a young woman. She carried him on
her back from their camp to the lake shore, where they erected their lodge
and passed their spring, and where he eventually died and was buried.

This relation I had from her own lips, at the agency of Michilimackinac,
in 1833. I asked her how she had carried him. She replied, with the Indian
apekun, or head-strap. "When tired she rested, and again pursued her
way, on-wa-be-wim by on-wa-be-win, or rest by rest, in the manner practised
in carrying heavy packages over the portages. Her name was Nadowakwa, or the
female Iroquois. She was then, perhaps, about fifty-five years of age, and
the wife of a chief called Saganosh, whose home and jurisdiction were in the
group of the St. Martin's Islands, north of Michilimackinac.

The incident was not voluntarily told, but came out, incidentally,
in some inquiries I was making respecting historical events, in the vicinity.
One such incident goes far to vindicate the affections of this people, and
should teach us, that they are of the same general lineage with ourselves,
and only require letters and Christianity, to exalt them in the scale of being.